Gothenburgers against Västlänken, and those who love trees especially those trees by Haga Churuch in Gothenburg, gathered on Monday, 15 October, and shared their grief over cutting down of the trees and expressed anger against the politicians in Gothenburg and against the politicians in Sweden.
Rosalyn Johansson (in the featured image of the article), 74-year-old wheelchair-bound woman, made her presence at Haga where some trees were already cut and many more were about to be felled. She is one of the protestors against taking away of the trees in Haga and also came to share her grief over the loss of trees in the heart of historic Gothenburg.
Karin Alfredsson, from the ‘Demokraterna’ party was also present at the scene. She said that Demokraterna’s biggest issue is to oppose the infrastructure project called Västlänken involving building of train stations in Gothenburg. “We think it is totally unnecessary to be at the station (Haga) where we were standing. There are many better ways to make public transportation better than this railway or commuter train (part of Västlänken). They are just making a tour around where we are…under the ground,” she said.
“Everybody in Gothenburg knows that Gothenburg is built on clay,” she explained and yet no political party opposed it. She said that even if Västlänken is built it would become more expensive when it is operation, would be difficult to keep up with the train times and the budget and to maintain it with all the tunnels.”
“Each tree can hold 3600 litres of water which means the ground level water would rise and that would affect all the houses which you can see there (by Haga Church)…so the houses will disappear,” Karin said. However, she is still hopeful that the train station at Haga, part of Västlänken project, can be stopped. “It is never too late because weirder decisions have been made and they have been rejected. Even now it can be stopped. It is absolutely possible to stop it.”
Joachim Moreau was one of the members of the gathering to say goodbye to the trees. When www.gothenburg-400.com asked him what made him to come here at Haga, he said, “My heart … to say goodbye to the trees, just to be here … manifest our feelings …”
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